Prior patents such as Ziv U.S. Pat. No. 4,180,283 issued Dec. 25, 1979 and Winnale U.S. Pat. No. 4,256,329 issued Mar. 17, 1981 have recognized that the desirability of providing an auxiliary buckle arrangement for adapting a passive belt system to provide improved restraint for a child occupant or a child seat.
Co-pending patent application Ser. No. 494,403 filed May 13, 1983, by Thomas P. Duffield and James A. Winnale and owned by the Assignee of this patent application provides a three-point passive belt system wherein a continuous-loop belt has a shoulder belt portion fixedly mounted on the upper rear corner of the door and a lap belt portion mounted on the lower corner of the door by a storage retractor for winding and storing the loop belt upon disconnect of a release buckle connecting the loop belt with an anchor belt retractably mounted on the inboard side of the occupant seat.
The present invention relates to an auxiliary buckle for conversion of the aforedescribed passive seat belt system from adult occupant restraint to child occupant restraint.